2016 Doomben 10,000 Nominations: Five for Waller

Last year’s winning trainer Chris Waller returns for the Doomben 10,000 2016 nominating for five hopes in the Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival showdown.

Japonisme (centre, pink cap) and Counterattack (outside) are two of the five 2016 Doomben 10,000 nominees for Chris Waller. Photo: Steve Hart.

All of the upcoming Brisbane Group 1 race nominations closed on Tuesday morning, including 54 for the $750,000 Group 1 James Boag’s Premium Doomben 10,000 (1350m).

The weight-for-age classic runs at Doomben Racecourse on Saturday May 28 and attracted 54 early entries this season.

Last year Waller won the race with Boban (2015) and he is back with up to five runners in the showdown 12 months on.

Waller’s Doomben 10,000 contingent features Redoute’s Choice colt Counterattack, last year’s Darley Classic winner Delectation, the flying Japonisme, Start Wondering and Strawberry Boy.

Of those Japonisme looks his best chance of success, the Choisir three-year-old last seen winning the Group 2 Arrowfield 3YO Sprint (1200m) in Sydney on April 9.

He is also nominated for the Doomben Cup earlier in the winter and Saturday week’s Group 1 BTC Cup (1200m), as are Counterattack and Delectation.

Two three-year-olds have beaten home the older horses in the Doomben 10,000 in the past four years, and a total of 15 youngsters are nominated this year including Waller’s Arrowfield quinella of Japonisme and Counterattack.

Other notable three-year-olds in the mix include Mick Dittman winning filly Divine Centuri, the John O’Shea-trained daughter of Lonhro Ghisoni, Randwick Guineas champion Le Romain and Gerald Ryan’s recent Hawkesbury Guineas winning son of Snitzel Spill The Beans.

Victorian horseman Darren Weir has a stranglehold over the Doomben 10,000 nominations numbers-wise this winter with a bumper nine early entries led by Black Heart Bart.

One of the early favourites for next month’s Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) at Eagle Farm, Perth expat Black Heart Bart was last seen running second in the Group 1 All Aged Stakes (1400m) in Sydney, his second Group 1 placing of the autumn.

Among Weir’s other most noteworthy hopes include in-form Street Cry colt Rageese, last year’s Sir Rupert Clarke winner Stratum Star and Danehill Dancer mare Tuscan Sling.

Easily the best mare among the Doomben 10,000 nominations this year is the Ciaron Maher-trained Azkadellia who is early favourite in Stradbroke Handicap betting.

The four-year-old daughter of Shinko King was last seen winning the Group 1 Queen Of The Turf Stakes (1600m) at Randwick on April 9 by two lengths, a run that followed her Doncaster Mile third to Winx.

Maher’s other Doomben 10,000 entry is fellow mare, six-year-old Girl Guide.

Other top hopes for the Stradbroke nominated for a lead-up run in the Doomben 10,000, which has provided two of the past four Straddie winners, include the Lee & Antony Freedman-trained Malaguerra, Bjorn Baker’s in-form Written Tycoon gelding Music Magnate and Fell Swoop.

Fell Swoop is clear favourite to win the BTC Cup on May 14 after the Canberra-trained Not A Single Doubt four-year-old backed up from his TJ Smith Stakes second to win Doomben’s Group 2 Victory Stakes (1200m) last weekend in Brisbane.

He is yet to win over further than 1200m however, so whether he presses onto a race like the Doomben 10,000 is still to be confirmed.

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2016 Doomben 10,000 Nominations

Doomben Racecourse – 28/05/2016